Kale, Sausage and Mushroom Strata

This Kale, Sausage and Mushroom Strata is a perfect breakfast main when you have a house filled with hungry guests sleepy-eyed from late night reveling. Complete with sausage, bread, kale, mushrooms, cheese and eggs, it’s a one dish wonder that hits all four food groups. Could you ask for anything more on New Year’s Day?

Happy 2016! I wish I could say that I had a raucous evening last night. We saw friends early in the evening, but ended up having a quiet dinner in — just the four of us. My son and I fell asleep on the couch, only to be woken up by my daughter and husband to ring in the new year and fall back asleep again 2 minutes later. Not exactly a New Year’s Eve for the record books, but there was something nice about its mellowness.

So I normally post an extremely healthy dish as my first recipe of the new year, but I am bucking that trend this year since I am posting this on New Year’s morning and I never start New Year’s resolutions until January 2nd anyways. And this dish isn’t exactly unhealthy. I mean there is a lot of kale in it. And mushrooms. And I think eggs are generally considered pretty healthy these days too. And there’s milk. But I won’t lie. It is carb heavy with ample sausage and three types of cheese in it. Not exactly diet friendly. I will not be eating it on January 2nd.

But I digress. The great thing about this dish is that it can be made the night before and just popped in the oven the next morning. It does take a relatively long time to cook so you might want to get up, put it in the oven, go back to bed, set an alarm for 30 minutes later, get up take off the foil, go back to bed or make some coffee and let it cook for another 35-40 minutes until it is toasty on top.

So as I sit typing this post while watching “Spy Kids 4” with my son earlier on New Year’s Day than I would like to be, I am seriously thinking about what my new year’s resolutions should be for 2016. Normally during the week between Christmas and New Year’s, I am very reflective and by now I’ve already come to some internal understanding on what I want to strive for in 2016. But that didn’t happen for me in the end of 2015. I had this crazy work week and a really bad cold that made for a grumpy end to the year. So I am thinking now about what I will strive to do in 2016. Here’s my list: 1. To laugh often and enjoy the little moments like I had this morning — my little Geordie telling me he really wanted to snuggle with me because he loved me and we were almost twins. 2. To roll with the punches better than I have in the past. 3. To be, feel and cook healthier. 4. To blog just a little more than I did in 2015 🙂

And one last thing. While my blog posts were few and far between in 2015, I did have an excuse other than working too much. I self published a new cookbook late in the year — the second so far. It’s called Appetizers for Every Occasion. A small little thing that includes many family recipes, I think its a good book to have in your cooking arsenal. Cheers and best wishes for a fabulous 2016!!

Add 2 tbsp of olive oil to a large fry pan and saute the mushrooms until they release their liquid, the liquid burns off and the mushrooms are slightly browned (10-15 minutes). Salt and pepper the mushrooms, remove the mushrooms from pan and set mushrooms aside.

Add additional tbsp of oil to the pan and saute kale until wilted (two minutes). Add kale to the bowl with the mushrooms and mix together.

Butter a large casserole dish and layer half the bread, half the kale, half the mushrooms, and half the cheese. Repeat with the other half of all the ingredients, ending with the cheese. Slowly pour egg mixture all over the top.